"Apologies, City Lord!"
"Please forgive us, City Lord!"
"We were rude!"
...
As Yue Yan's ice-blue armor and veil disappeared, revealing her original appearance, the candidates all stood up and bowed to her, apologizing. Their faces were pale, and sweat poured down their faces...
Ye Feng also stood up, but he remained silent, a bad feeling rising in his heart...
"No wonder Jiang Si Shan said he didn't remember any teachers from Dawn Academy wearing a sky-blue long dress... This person isn't a teacher at all... she's the City Lord..."
"And the City Lord Jiang Si Shan saw was probably also wearing a veil and ice-blue armor..."
Ye Feng couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
"Let's get back to business!"
At this moment, Yue Yan spoke, "You have all passed through layers of selection to reach this point, and I am well aware of your objectives..."
"However, marriage is a lifelong matter, and I cannot directly decide for Bing!"
"I deeply respect Bing's wishes..."
Yue Yan scanned the ten people below, "How about this: each of you write a few lines that you believe can move Bing. This will be the content of the fourth round of selection!"
"As for the time... let's limit it to half an hour... Bing will come to check in half an hour!"
After speaking, Yue Yan nodded to Li Shu beside her.
Li Shu's hand flashed with light, and a stack of paper and ten water pens appeared in his hand. He then quickly distributed them to Ye Feng and the other ten candidates.
"She claims to respect Bing's wishes, yet someone is trying to force Bing into marriage... and she's making us do this nonsense..."
Upon receiving the paper and pen, Ye Feng grumbled inwardly. Although he guessed Yue Yan might have her own difficulties, he still felt annoyed thinking about Bing's situation...
The other nine candidates, after receiving their paper and pens, furrowed their brows, thinking about what words could move Bing...
Ye Feng was also worried... because he needed to write something that would make Bing recognize him, yet not reveal his identity to others...
Soon, a refined-looking candidate began to write. Seeing this, the others clearly felt the pressure and also began to write...
"Oh man... what should I write..."
Ye Feng scratched his head and quickly began to ponder.
...
Time ticked by, second by second...
With less than two minutes left in the half-hour, the other nine candidates had already written more or less poems and prose praising and admiring Bing...
One of them had even filled the entire sheet of paper... yet Ye Feng had not written a single word.
"I got it! I'll write this!"
As Ye Feng was racking his brains, recalling every scene of his past experiences with Bing, his eyes suddenly lit up. He picked up the pen and quickly wrote a concise sentence on the white paper, while also drawing a figure sitting on the ground, hands covering its chest, and knees bent.
"Alright, time's up, stop writing!"
The moment Ye Feng finished drawing the figure, Li Shu spoke.
"Pat da! Pat ta~"
Almost simultaneously, faint footsteps were heard from the staircase. Ye Feng quickly turned around and saw a beautiful girl in a white dress walking slowly, it was Bing, whom Ye Feng had met in Desperate City.
At this moment, Bing's brows carried a clear look of worry and a hint of reluctance...
"Greetings, City Lord!"
Bing walked up to Yue Yan and greeted her.
"Oh, no need for pleasantries!"
Yue Yan smiled slightly and pointed to the ten candidates, "These are the young elites of Arcane City who have passed through layers of selection. They have some words for you, all written down on paper. See if there's anyone you fancy!~"
"Alright~"
Bing sighed slightly, looking somewhat helpless. She then began to examine the "love letters" the candidates had painstakingly written.
Bing did not skim through them. She read every "love letter" from each candidate, and as she put them down, she nodded in acknowledgment.
As Ye Feng waited with considerable anxiety, Bing finally arrived in front of him. She picked up the paper in front of Ye Feng as before, took a glance, and was about to put it down when she suddenly stopped.
"This..."
Bing's pupils contracted, and her eyes, fixed on the paper in her hand, were filled with disbelief.
Seeing this, Ye Feng breathed a slight sigh of relief. He had thought long and hard, even considering revealing his identity on paper, but in the end, he chose this sentence that only Bing and he would understand...
"You big man, your pectoral muscles have developed to such an unbelievable degree!"
When Bing first saw this sentence, she was somewhat bewildered. But when she saw the figure beside the sentence, with hands covering its chest and knees bent, she immediately recalled a scene from Desperate City...
Although the figure Ye Feng drew was very crude, it was barely recognizable as a person, but the floral mask the figure wore was very clear...
"Ye... Ye Feng?"
Involuntarily, Bing's mind flashed back to the young, albeit somewhat immature, yet sincere boy she had met in Desperate City, Ye Feng.
At that time, she, disguised as a man, was injured. Ye Feng, unaware, was cleaning sharp ice shards and fragments from her chest. In his haste, he had torn her clothes, along with the ice shards...
This was the origin of Ye Feng's exaggerated comment about her fair pectoral muscles...
Bing clearly remembered the disgusted and disdainful look on Ye Feng's face at that time... Thinking about it, Bing's face turned red, looking quite shy...
Her gaze slowly shifted from the paper to Ye Feng. Seeing him in his miner's outfit and with a somewhat unfamiliar face, she looked confused...
Then, Bing's expression changed. As if remembering something, she quickly put down the paper in her hand and continued to read the "love letter" from the next candidate...
Because of the content on Ye Feng's paper, Bing was somewhat distracted afterward, even her nods of acknowledgment felt forced...
In a short while, Bing finished reading all the candidates' "love letters" and stood beside Yue Yan.
"The fourth round of selection is over. You can all leave now. The results will be announced in a few days!"
Yue Yan glanced at Bing and then spoke to the ten candidates.
The candidates all bade farewell to Yue Yan and turned to leave. As a few candidates went down the stairs, they patted Ye Feng on the shoulder and cast envious glances his way...
...
After leaving the Dawn Academy library, Ye Feng did not return directly but stayed nearby.
Because he had finally met Bing, and he didn't want to lose track of her again, he planned to find an opportunity nearby to ask her what had happened...
A moment later, Bing emerged from the Dawn Academy library, followed by two elders with graying temples, both Diamond-tier powerhouses...
Ye Feng's eyes narrowed, and he quickly followed...
...